Chemical states and electronic structure of a HfO2∕Ge(001) interface

Abstract

We report the chemical bonding structure and valence band alignment at the HfO2∕Ge(001) interface by systematically probing various core level spectra as well as valence band spectra using soft x rays at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. We investigated the chemical bonding changes as a function of depth through the dielectric stack by taking a series of synchrotron photoemission spectra as we etched through the HfO2 film using a dilute hydrogen fluoride solution. We found that a very nonstoichiometric GeOx layer exists at the HfO2∕Ge interface. The valence band spectra near the Fermi level in each different film structure were carefully analyzed, and as a result, the valence band offset between Ge and GeOx was determined to be ΔEv (Ge–GeOx)=2.2±0.15eV, and that between Ge and HfO2, ΔEv (Ge–HfO2)=2.7±0.15eV.